Aussie mining company sues lawyers
A CONTROVERSIAL Australian mining company has sued two environmental lawyers and a local community activist for defamation, claiming a total of R1.250m in damages.
The subsidiary of the firm, Mineral Resources Commodities (MRC), which wants to mine the mineral sands at Xolobeni on the Wild Coast, says the two attorneys at the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), Tracey Davies and Christine Reddell, along with Davine Cloete, a West Coast activist, made defamatory statements about Mineral Sands Resources’ “environmentally destructive” Tormin mineral sands mine on the West Coast.
But the CER has branded the legal action a Slapp suit, or strategic lawsuit against public participation, which is “intended to censor, intimi- date and silence critics” by burdening them with the cost of a legal defence until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
In the summons, filed on April 28, the company alleges that CER attorneys, and Cloete, made defamatory statements about Mineral Sands Resources and its director Zamile Qunya during presentations at UCT’s Summer School in January. MSR has claimed R250 000 in damages from each of the attorneys, and a further R750 000 from Cloete.
The summons underlines remarks made in the presentations that the company continued to operate in circumstances where it was in breach of environmental laws and mining laws and was “predatory” and “ruthless”.
Davies told the Saturday Star it seemed as if the company had deliberately “sent someone to listen to the lec- tures because it wasn’t well publicised.
“MRC has a poor reputation in this country. You only have to google their name to see that so it’s difficult to know how we damaged their reputation.
“We’re environmental lawyers and are vigorously challenging what we perceive to be unlawful actions by this company. This must be an attempt to silence us.”
The CER said the claims would be strenuously defended. “This is not the first time MRC has sued activists who have criticised the company... These claims are also being defended. The controversial proposal by MRC to mine the sand dunes of Xolobeni on the Wild Coast has been opposed by many local residents. At Tormin, local communities and environmental activists have raised numerous concerns about the legality of MSR’s mineral sands mining operation.”